At INFODAD, we rank everything we review with plus signs, on a scale from one (+) [disappointing] to four (++++) [definitely worth considering]. We mostly review (+++) or better items. Very rarely, we give an exceptional item a fifth plus. We are independent reviewers and, as parents, want to help families learn which books, music, and computer-related items we and our children love...or hate. INFODAD is a service of TransCentury Communications, Inc., Fort Myers, Florida, infodad@gmail.com.

October 16, 2014

(++++) ON STAGE AND OFF

Stravinsky: The Rite of
Spring—versions for orchestra and for piano four hands. Sinfonieorchester
Basel conducted by Dennis Russell Davies; Davies and Maki Namekawa, piano four
hands. Sinfonieorchester Basel. $18.99.

A Thanksgiving of American Folk
Hymns. The Choirs and Orchestra of Brigham Young University. BYU Records.
$16.99.

Although far better known as
a concert work – and as a huge challenge for any conductor – Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring was always conceived
as a ballet. And although it was planned from the start as an orchestral piece,
a four-hand-piano version was created as a study and rehearsal guide and was
actually published before the ballet’s première in 1913. Hearing excellent performances of the two versions
on a new CD on the Sinfonieorchester Basel’s own label is revelatory. Dennis
Russell Davies, a fine pianist as well as a conductor, brings both technical
and expository skill to the work in its two forms (actually two of its three
forms: there was also a version for solo piano, now unfortunately lost). Even
without the visual element of the ballet, The
Rite of Spring is so carefully structured that anyone who knows its program
can envision what is happening on stage – in fact, Stravinsky wrote in detail
about the actions that his music portrays. Davies conducts the orchestra with
care and a sure hand, letting the music flow and build naturally in a structure
that even today sounds revolutionary – for example, in the way in which
sections become louder through the addition of instruments rather than through
changing dynamics (essentially a bold reinterpretation and highly dramatic use
of the Rossini crescendo). The astonishingly dramatic, pounding rhythms and their
near-constant changes, the still-bold-sounding use of the orchestra as a
rhythmic rather than melodic device, the abrupt section-to-section changes that
nevertheless serve an overarching structural purpose – all these come through
clearly here, with the excellent playing of Sinfonieorchester Basel making the
soft sections of the work as dramatic as the loud and intense ones. The
piano-four-hands version, in which Davies is joined by Maki Namekawa, is
subtler as well as being more stripped-down. Similar to the orchestral work but
not identical to it, the piano-four-hands rendition strips The Rite of Spring to its essentials, lacking the color of the
version for orchestra (and this is, to be sure, a huge loss) but having a
certain sinewy power that accentuates the matter-of-fact brutality of the story
very effectively indeed. This is a very fine release that provides genuine
insight into a seminal work not only of modern ballet but also of 20th-century
music as a whole.

Also intended for the stage
and also heard far more frequently in concert, Mendelssohn’s incidental music
for A Midsummer Night’s Dream
sparkles and bubbles in a 1997 Stuttgart performance led by Frieder Bernius and
now available on the Carus label. This is a far more complete and authentic
rendition than is usually heard on disc, never mind in concert: it includes not
only the singing but also all the narration, and places the music for the
melodramas properly in context by having it played behind spoken dialogue
rather than on its own, in the forefront – a way that Mendelssohn never
intended. This sort of musical melodrama, highly popular in Mendelssohn’s time,
has long since fallen from favor, but it is important to hear in this work,
because it shows how carefully the composer melded – or distinguished – words
and notes. The performance is in German, as was the original composition:
Mendelssohn learned English quite well, but did not know it at the time of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Carus has
done an outstanding job of presenting Bernius’ finely balanced and highly
effective performance: there are extensive booklet notes about the work and a
full libretto in German and English. The result is a version of the complete A Midsummer Night’s Dream that will be a
must-have for anyone who wants to know how the composer really wanted this
marvelous setting of Shakespeare to sound. And there is equally fine treatment
accorded by Bernius and Carus to two 2004 performances of Mendelssohn works
that are far less familiar than A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. They are Mendelssohn’s settings of the second and
third parts of Sophocles’ Oedipus trilogy: Oedipus
in Kolonos (the last of the plays to be written, but the second in terms of
its events) and Antigone (the third
in the event timeline). The stately seriousness of Mendelssohn’s setting of
these works, where his focus was primarily on the Greek choruses, contrasts
starkly with the airiness of his Shakespeare setting. But the works are
noticeably similar in their use of spoken dialogue, musical background and faithfulness
to their underlying texts. Mendelssohn’s handling of the Greek plays is
surprisingly forward-looking, in some ways resemblingCarl Orff’s declamatory Antigonae, which dates to 1949, more than a century after
Mendelssohn’s death, and is also in German. Mendelssohn’s settings are
essentially encapsulations of the Sophoclean tragedies, presenting much of what
happens without attempting to be comprehensive. They are talk-oriented in a way
that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is
not, yet they also contain music that is apt and explanatory, furthering the
verbal elements and adding tension and drama to them. Interestingly, Antigone was for a time one of
Mendelssohn’s most popular works (although Oedipus
in Kolonos never was). Today, when the form in which Mendelssohn worked is
rarely used – Orff notwithstanding – the music may seem more of a distraction
than an enhancement. But it is worthy in itself, if not at the level of
Mendelssohn’s Shakespeare setting, and this admirably paced and sung Oedipus in Kolonos and Antigone provide a rare opportunity to
hear Mendelssohn as a stage composer who was adept at working within a form
that was highly popular in his time.

Shakespeare, of course,
continues to enthrall composers and stage performers alike. Among modern
composers finding inspiration in Shakespeare’s works is Joseph Summer, whose Oxford Songs is a collection of settings
of Shakespeare’s sonnets and scenes. The third Navona release in the Shakespeare Concerts series, which
focuses largely on Summer’s work, is officially devoted to goddesses – as the
CD’s title says – but actually includes both divine and human manifestations of
the feminine. There are six selections here, the longest and most elaborate by
far (and the most goddess-oriented) being Honour,
Riches, Marriage-Blessing, to words from The Tempest. There are also settings from Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth
Night and Hamlet – respectively, Gallop Apace You Fiery-Footed Steeds, If
Music Be the Food of Love, and There
Is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook. Two sonnet settings complete the disc:
number CXXVII, “In the Old Age Black Was Not Counted Fair,” and number XVIII,
“Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” The settings are uniformly sensitive
both to the words’ meanings and to their poetic rhythms, and Summer does a fine
job of creating varying ensembles to present the music: Sonnet CXVII, for
instance, is for four voices, French horn, string quartet and bass, while
Sonnet XVIII is for mezzo-soprano, flute, string quartet and bass. The differing
ensembles both reflect and emphasize the different cast of the poetry, creating
a pleasing musical contrast that parallels the contrasting subject matter.
Likewise, the play scenes are set vocally and instrumentally in ways designed
to highlight their meaning and emotional underpinning: sparest of all is the Hamlet excerpt, for soprano and piano,
but even the extended material from The
Tempest uses only a piano as an instrument, weaving above it three separate
and harmonized voices – two sopranos and a mezzo-soprano. All the performers
handle their roles with sensitivity and apparent understanding of Shakespeare’s
fluent and mellifluous language, showing the Oxford Songs to be an effective way of communicating the timeless
elements of Shakespeare to audiences in the 21st century.

The latest release by the
vocal group Cantus, on its own label, is more time-bound, being specifically oriented
toward Thanksgiving. Its “stage” orientation involves both the group’s physical
performances around the United States and their virtual ones on the electronic
scene: this disc announces itself as “Recorded Live for Broadcast.” The works
here are a touch on the monochromatic side, both musically and thematically,
resulting in a (+++) rating for the production. This is certainly not to fault
Cantus’ handling of Mendelssohn’s Trinklied
or Grieg’s Tyteberet, or for that
matter the singers’ performance of America
the Beautiful, Simple Gifts or Turkey
in the Straw. Everything is beautifully harmonized, warm and even lush in
expression, and sung with pleasant but never-too-deep feeling – this is
comfortable music and comfort music, quite suitable for chilly autumn evenings
if not for in-depth contemplation. Taken as a whole, the disc is seasonal and
unlikely to receive frequent reuse, even though some of the songs are quite
appropriate anytime: A Thankful Heart,
For the Beauty of the Earth, and, on the lighter side, Food, Glorious Food. But the mixture of hymns and secular music,
the emphasis on being thankful for whatever sort of abundance one has (material
or spiritual), and the overall sound of the arrangements, together make this CD
a fine Thanksgiving tie-in – but a touch too narrow in focus to provide
all-year-round listening pleasure.

Similarly, a very pleasant
and nicely sung (+++) CD called A Thanksgiving
of American Folk Hymns offers music that is mostly unchallenging to hear
(although not always to perform) and has a seasonal focus with both secular and
sacred elements. Four Brigham Young University choirs are heard in these 18
works: the BYU Singers, conducted by Ronald Staheli; the BYU Men’s Chorus and
BYU Concert Choir, both conducted by Mack Wilberg; and the BYU Women’s Chorus,
conducted by Amy Dalton. Singing sometimes a
cappella, sometimes with support from the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra
conducted by David Dalton, the choirs perform works ranging from the well-known
Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts, and
martial Battle Hymn of the Republic
(a rather warlike offering for the peacefulness of Thanksgiving) to the
African-American spiritual Let Me Fly
and the American folk hymns The Morning
Trumpet,Wondrous Love and Cindy. Most listeners will know a selection of these
works, but relatively few will know them all, making this BYU Records release a
journey of discovery as well as celebration. There is even one orchestral piece
here – an excerpt from Copland’s Symphony No. 3 – to complement the vocal material.
This is a digitally remastered 20th-anniversary edition of a disc
that, although tied to a specific time of year, is timeless in its words of
thanks and spiritual uplift, and that offers warmth of expression and feeling
that is welcome at any time of year.